Priests in Dyer’s Vat: Grotesque or Satire?

Abstract

The group of four texts discussed in this article is linked by the common topic of punishment of adulterous priest(s) by a craftsman—immersing the priest in a vat with paint and threatened or actual castration of the priest. The texts belong to the genres of medieval short epics in verse: Old French fabliaux, Middle High German Märendichtung, and Italian cantare. The Old French and Middle High German versions (fabliaux “Le prestre teint” and “Le prestre crucefié” and Märe “Von dem maler zu Wirtzpurg”) have been discussed considerably in previous research, the main emphasis will be, therefore, given here on the less known Italian version of the story entitled “Cantare dei tre preti”. The article aims to present the texts as a significant example of a mixture of grotesque and satiric. Special attention will be paid to Wolfgang Kayser’s theory of the grotesque and to interpretation of the satire implied by his theory. I shall formulate in the conclusion the final evaluation of the nature of the texts from the chosen theoretical point of view on the one hand and the reflection on the problem of closeness of the grotesque and satire when perceived as aesthetic categories on the other.